Petitioners, patient’s relatives question Minister’s no deaths due to oxygen statement
01 Aug 2021 | 06:46am IST
Petitioners, patient’s relatives question Minister’s no deaths due to oxygen statement
Team Herald
PANJIM: Health Minister Vishwajit Rane’s statement in the Assembly that there were no deaths due to oxygen shortage, has received strong criticism from the people, families of COVID victims and the petitioners who had approached the High Court to streamline the oxygen supply to Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) and the State.
Rane had informed the House that at no point of time the oxygen supply at GMC had run out and thus, no death had been reported at GMC due to non-supply of oxygen.
In May, the High Court had even pulled up the State regarding complaints of oxygen shortage at GMC. Even as the State had been denying that there had been no deaths due to oxygen supply, the opposition and families of Covid victims had alleged otherwise.
Reacting to the development, South Goa Advocates Association (SGAA) president Adv Antonio Clovis Da Costa, one of the petitioners at the HC, said the government is trying to bury the truth.
“The statement of the health minister is irresponsible and very sad that it was made on the floor of the House. Entire Goa knows that most of the deaths which occurred in GMC from the end of April and in the month of May were due to shortage of oxygen. SGAA had sought an independent judicial inquiry seeking a white paper on the number of deaths that had occurred due to lack of oxygen, however, the same was opposed by the State and was not granted by the High Court,” Da Costa said.
“If a judicial inquiry was conducted the truth would have been known and families of the deceased could have sued the government for medical negligence and receive compensation. Now the State is trying to bury the truth along with the victims,” he added.
Covid volunteer Shruti Chaturvedi, another petitioner who has been mobilising resources and support from other volunteers to help families of Covid victims with various essential supplies including oxygen, also expressed her shock at the statement.
“No regards for the family of people who've lost their loved ones to lack of oxygen. We have recordings of calls from the official GMC line where doctors are themselves telling they are running out of oxygen. Were GMC doctors lying on the official landline of GMC?” she asked. “Honestly, there are no more words left to tell,” she added.
Others, including opposition MLAs questioned what happened to the ‘dark hours’ and an earlier statement on social media by Rane himself on May 11 that 26 Covid patients had died between 2 am and 6 am due to oxygen shortage at GMC. There was even a social media post by a GMC doctor who expressed helplessness that a Covid patient’s condition deteriorated due to oxygen shortage and that the patient later passed away.
Various attendants at GMC, that included families of patients at GMC, had also complained on several occasions about their family member admitted in the hospital’s ICU suffered whenever there was a drop in oxygen. They had lamented how the authorities used to run around at the last minute to rectify the issue, even as the time taken to rectify the issue and restore the supply had a devastating effect on these patients.